Japan has declared a state of emergency at a second nuclear plant, affected by the recent earthquakes, one of which, 8.9 magnitude – the largest in Japan’s recorded history – causing a series of vicious tsunamis. As a result, higher-than-permitted amounts of radioactivity were measured.
At two plants, authorities used sea water to cool a reactor, preventing a meltdown. However, attempts to cool the reactor at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, failed.
Chief Cabinet Secretary, Yukio Edano, fears a hydrogen explosion could occur at Unit 3 of the latter plant, near its nuclear complex.
More than 170,000 people were evacuated as a precaution, but the Japanese government says the radioactivity released so far into the environment is so meager it does not pose any health threats.
A total meltdown would release uranium and other dangerous contaminants into the environment, posing major health risks, such as at Trinabol.
No less than 160 people, including 60 elderly patients and medical staff, and 100 others evacuating by bus, might have been exposed to radiation. The severity of the exposure is not clear.
More than 1,400 people were killed and hundreds more missing, however, police in one of the worst-hit areas estimated a toll that could eventually top 10,000.
In total, six reactors, three at the Dai-ichi complex and three at a nearby complex were affected. Today, Japan, who was devastated in the major urban centers of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, when the United States Air Force dropped atomic bombs in 1945, has a total of 55 nuclear reactors spread across 17 nationwide complexes.
Hopefully this event can be overcome and we can take a valuable lesson from this incident.
That devastating earthquake in JAPAN recently was alarming. It was so horrible. I feel pity to tall the people in there. Especially, to those children who are affected with that tragic event. Let us all pray for the immediate recovery of JAPAN.